Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 3, No. 301. Wednesday, 4 November 1992.
(1) From: Robert F. O'Connor <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, 15:02:05 EST
Subj: Re: SHK 3.0291 R: Doubling Claudius and Ghost
(2) From: Todd Lidht <LIDHT@GUVM>
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, 10:01:09 EST
Subj: Doubling (sort of)
(3) From: Jay L Halio <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, 14:15:31 -0500 (EST)
Subj: Re: SHK 3.0298 More Rs: Doubling Claudius and Ghost
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Robert F. O'Connor <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, 15:02:05 EST
Subject: 3.0291 R: Doubling Claudius and Ghost
Comment: Re: SHK 3.0291 R: Doubling Claudius and Ghost
One 'doubling' I have seen in three separate productions of 'Hamlet' is Osric
and Polonius. I find this interesting as it really brings home the way events
in the first half of the play are mirrored in the second. I can't help but
feel, however, that doubling Claudius and the Ghost could get confusing, unless
drastic makeup was employed. A late 1990 production by the Haymarket relied
far more on the ghost as an active force in Elsinore -- he was onstage for
Claudius' death, and, indeed, the way it was staged made him more of an
instrument in it than Hamlet.
ROC
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Todd Lidht <LIDHT@GUVM>
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, 10:01:09 EST
Subject: Doubling (sort of)
This discussion on the importance (or lack thereof) of doubling reminds me of
a production I was in as an undergraduate. In _She Stoops to Conquer_ there
are quite a few "bit parts" -- servants, bar folk and the like. Toward the end
of the play, there is an extended scene outside in a wooded area.
My director chose to have the "bit players," those not actually in the scene
according to the script, double as trees, bushes and rocks. WE were the
forest.
As I recall, his justification for doubling sounded similar to many of the
reasons expressed for Claudius/Ghost and other parts. I will forever be
skeptical of the intellectual nature of doubling because of my distinguished
stage career as a lone pine tree, down stage center.
"It's another 'kick me' sign on
Todd M. Lidh the butt that is my life."
Georgetown University -- Frank F.
School of Business Administration MURPHY BROWN
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jay L Halio <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1992, 14:15:31 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 3.0298 More Rs: Doubling Claudius and Ghost
Comment: Re: SHK 3.0298 More Rs: Doubling Claudius and Ghost
Giorgio Melchiori has an important article on doubling in Shakespeare's time by
his company. Sorry, I don't have the reference handy, but it is, I think, not
too long ago. And William Ringler has also written persuasively on the doubling
of Cordelia and the Fool in *Lear*; so has Stephen Booth. I suspect that
doubling for effect (as Melchiori and Booth describe it) was used as often as
doubling by necessity, though doubling the Ghost and Claudius is a new one to
me.
Jay Halio
